Jim D'Avila, the Unite union ­official who negotiated a 3% pay cut for his members at Honda, puts it starkly: "We wouldn't have agreed to a pay cut if there hadn't been 500 jobs at stake."

Some 1,400 people had already left the car company's Swindon plant under a voluntary redundancy scheme and the rest of the workforce had survived two months of a four-month shutdown on half pay. But the Japanese firm said it still had 490 more staff than it needed, as it slashed car production by more than half to cope with the slump in demand.

"They said, 'We don't want to get rid of these people really – from next April we're going to need them,'" says D'Avila. Both sides also had the example of a deal that had already been done at Honda's Japanese headquarters, where staff had taken a 10% pay cut and management 15%.

"We started talking, and we accepted the fact that we might have to take a basic pay cut."

In the end, they agreed a package that involved shopfloor ­workers taking a 3% cut and management 5%, as well as reductions in hours, an extra week of paid leave and measures to help match some of the surplus staff to jobs at ­Honda's nearby suppliers.

He says most of the staff are coping, so far. "People are ­making changes to their domestic budgets, and that's why it needs to be kept to a minimum, but I'm not hearing reports about people who are going to lose their houses or anything."

He is keeping his fingers crossed that once demand begins to pick up later in the year, Honda will crank ­production back up again. "We would want to talk things up; there's definitely been an impact because people have been ­talking the economy down."

By next year, he insists, normal industrial relations will be resumed. "We're working on the basis that come 1 April, not only will our pay be reinstated but we'll be looking for an increase."